


An Impossible Place

by little mouse (lcwilkie)



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-04-18 17:14:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21828073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lcwilkie/pseuds/little%20mouse
Summary: Ronan visits Adam at college over the Christmas break. They reflect on the impossible, and Ronan gives Adam a gift.
Relationships: Ronan Lynch/Adam Parrish
Comments: 2
Kudos: 63





	An Impossible Place

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Had this idea for a while, figured I might as well write it, and here we are! Haven't read the books in a little while, so some details may be off, but oh well.

It was the beginning of January, and two boys were walking through the park. One, stockier, with buzz cut hair, a black leather jacket, and matching black combat boots, stomping along on the gravel path; the other, slightly taller, in a sensible wool coat and winter boots with a red plaid scarf wrapped around his neck. They were walking side by side, with their hands stuffed into their pockets against the cold. Their shoulders lightly brushed against each other when their steps lined up. The two seemed to line up steps fairly often.

“Spring break is just in March, you know. It’s not that far off,” Adam said, after hearing Ronan sigh for the second time in as many minutes.

Although it did feel far off. Another semester of studying and tests and group projects. Adam was used to studying, and used to tests, and used to pulling all nighters to get all the work done. But now it was for college. A college Adam was attending mostly on scholarship, so no working three jobs just to barely stay fed. Just one, and part-time at that, for extra cash. It was endless, and repetitive, and Adam couldn’t believe that he’d made it here, to college, after working through endless, repetitive high school, with only the barest promise of a future. He’d won that future, though. And he couldn’t quite believe it, that he was here, in this never-ending moment, in an impossible place. 

Ronan shrugged, a rough movement, designed to show the maximum amount of sass, and to lift a five pound bird that usually rested on his shoulder. Adam turned to look at him. Ronan was looking up at the sky, though the skeletal branches of the trees. It occurred to Adam that Ronan was very much like a tree himself: roots deep in the earth at the Barns and the farm he was growing there, but always with his head in the clouds, a dreamer who could imagine the incredible and make it reality.

“What are you staring at, Parrish?” Ronan asked him, still not looking at Adam.

“You,” Adam responded, “I’ve missed looking at you.” And now Ronan did look at Adam, just out of the corner of his eyes, and Adam smiled, and Ronan blushed, and looked away again.

Adam then turned to look at the sky, and Ronan turned to look at Adam. It was new, still, only a few months since the end of everything and the beginning of everything else. Ronan still preferred to watch Adam sleep than sleep himself, still preferred Adam’s eyes over every other colour. Still preferred to watch Adam smile when Ronan brought something out of a dream or came back from a nightmare safe. It was new, still, to be happy. It was a never-ending moment, in an impossible place.

Braving the cold, Ronan took his hand out of his pocket, b and pulled Adam’s hand out of his. Ronan linked their fingers, and smiled.

“Oh, hey, before I leave, I brought you a present,” Ronan said, later that night, sprawled in Adam’s bed, head propped up on one hand, watching Adam through the doorway.

Adam hummed in response, and raised his eyebrows, still brushing his teeth. Ronan just grinned, so Adam spat out the toothpaste and rinsed his mouth.

“Another present? Christmas was, like, a week ago! Did you forget about it or something?”

“Or something, sure. Come here.”

“Kind of busy trying to floss, here.”

“Why? If your teeth fall out I can just dream you dentures. Cool ones, that change colour depending on how you feel, so if someone pisses you off at that shitty coffee shop again you can terrify the shit out of them by grinning with red teeth while you tell them ‘ma’am, I _am _the manager’.”

“I’m sorry, did you just offer to dream me mood-ring dentures? Cause as sweet as that is, I don’t think I want everyone in the world to ask why my teeth are tealy-purple. Though if you could dream up some coffee beans that don’t stain my teeth, that’d be great,” Adam said as he walked out of the bathroom and towards the tiny double bed pressed against the wall. “You can’t tell me to come here and then leave!”

But Ronan was already up, digging through his backpack for whatever his gift was. Once he found it, he turned around, and saw Adam still standing, exasperated, by the side of the bed.

“Come on, sit down,” Ronan grabbed Adam’s hand and pulled him down onto the side of the bed.

Adam sat, slightly bemused. Ronan restless wasn’t unusual, but Ronan nervously restless was less common now that he had his life together again. He was still an orphan, but he had the Barns; he was still alone most of the time, but he’d dreamed up the mirrors from _Harry Potter_ so he could talk to Gansey and Blue and Henry; he was still trying to get over his various night-terrors, but more often than not his dreams gave him something good. And, of course, there was Adam.

But Ronan was definitely nervous. Not quite looking at Adam, with a stiffness to his shoulders, reminiscent of when he had revealed earth-shattering revelations to their little grouping, like the first time he had said he pulled things from dreams, or when he told everyone he’d dreamed a bird and a car and a brother and a forest.

“Ronan.” Adam waited until Ronan glanced at him. “Whatever it is, I’ll love it,” and he reached out to grab Ronan’s hand, the one not currently clutching a small blue velvet bag.

Ronan breathed deeply, looked Adam in the eyes, flipped their joined hands over, and emptied the bag.

Adam looked down at his hand, where a tiny earring sat in his palm.

“An earring? You’re nervous about an earring?” He laughed a little, and reached out to pick it up to look closer. “Hey, how long have you had this? Is this why you wanted me to get my ear pierced over the summer?”

A shrug from Ronan. “Sort of. I didn’t have that,” he jerked his head towards the earring, “yet, but I had the idea for it. So once you agreed to get your ear pierced, I dreamed it up.”

“Is this….Cabeswater?” Adam asked, incredulously. Inside the small sphere of the stud was tiny forest, with all four seasons , and a miniscule orange Camaro. “It’s beautiful, Ronan, but you were there when I got this pierced and I can’t take the starter stud out for another month,” he continued, looking up at Ronan, then back down and the perfect replica of Cabeswater in his palm.

“It’s not actually a matter of swapping the earring. You just can’t take one out and leave it out,” Ronan explained. “What? I looked it up when I had the idea, alright?”

“I mean…I guess,” Adam said hesitantly.

“Come on, Parish, you’ll give up your eyes and hands to Cabeswater, but can’t handle a tiny bit of pain to swap an earring for it?”

“I just…I wasn’t really expecting an earring.”

Adam looked once again at Ronan, sitting on the edge of Adam’s bed, coiled tight and intense and rough around the edges, like the whorls and spikes and thorns and beauty of Ronan’s tattoo. Adam looked down at the earring.

“Help me swap them?” He asked, with a smile.

Ronan didn’t smile back. He looked at Adam quickly, then swallowed hard, and took the earring from Adam, and focused on Adam’s ear.

“Ronan? ” Adam pulled away, not sure why Ronan was more worried now that Adam had accepted the gift than he was before presenting it.

“I’m fine,” Ronan scowled back, “I just don’t want to hurt you.”

“It’ll be fine. Just, stab me gently, yeah?”

And Ronan did smile at that, a little, just enough to let Adam know he wasn’t unhappy.

Adam took a deep breath, and closed his eyes. He felt the warmth of the back of Ronan’s hand on his cheek, smelled the leather polish from his bracelets. Felt gentle tugging on his earlobe, and had a brief flash of memory to getting the piercing two weeks ago, on the left side, where Ronan said it would be better since he wouldn’t be able to hear the machine punch the earring in. A small squeak escaped him as Ronan pulled the plain cubic zirconia stud out of the sensitive skin. Saw lights and shadows flicker behind his eyelids as Ronan stood up, turned on the bathroom light, grabbed something, and came back. Smelled rubbing alcohol as Ronan presumably disinfected the new earring. Felt more gentle pressure as the new stud was put in, and let out another small squeak.

Heard the back of the earring slide on and click into place.

Adam’s eyes flew open.

Ronan sat back, face unreadable.

Adam reached up, eyes wide, and felt along the new earring. Heard his fingers rustle against the skin of his ear and cheek.

It took, to Ronan, a short eternity before he said anything.

“You dreamed me back my hearing.”

“I wasn’t sure if it would work. I don’t know enough about auditory systems to know for sure…but I figure, if I can make a car that runs without an engine…” Ronan trailed off. Adam was still staring at him, left hand on his new earring.

Then Adam lunged forward and wrapped his arms around Ronan’s neck, and held on tight.

“I love you, Ronan Lynch,” he said, before kissing Ronan solidly on the mouth. He felt Ronan’s shoulders relax, tension leaving abruptly, and Ronan kissed him back, wrapping his arms around Adam’s waist.

Ronan pulled away from the kiss. “I love you too, Adam Parrish,” he whispered, into Adam’s left ear, adorned with an earring, containing a never-ending moment and an impossible place.


End file.
